Hard Drive Hero
by tlhgeek
Summary: When the Last Dragonborn dies before his time, Akatosh gets desperate. The Daedric Princes are asked to provide a Champion to be the New 'Last' Dragonborn. Unfortunately for Nirn, The Daedra provided a Champion each. Currently Un-Beta'ed
1. Chapter 0

**Hard Drive Hero**

When Lorkhan tricked those that would become the Aedra into creating Nirn he gave his life to Nirn in the process. Unfortunately several Aedra escaped the creation of Nirn or fought against the draining energies, keeping their divinity but forever tied to Nirn and it's existence.

Lorkhan's corpse is believed to have become the mass of Nirn. This along with the damaged design of Nirn left artifacts of it's creation and allowed the occasional gap in which Daedra and other beings can slip into Nirn. Due to this Lorkhan's Heart is literally the heart of the world, when the Nevarine destroyed it in Morrowind it was not truly destroyed.

However 'destroying' the current heart damaged Nirn's stability in Mundus and allowed a greater influence by the Daedra on Nirn. This led directly to the Oblivion Crisis as Mehrunes Dagon attempted to wipe out the Septim line and with it The Amulet of Kings another anchor of Nirn's existence.

While this plan eventually failed the Amulet of Kings survived and was lost in the mists of time. However Akatosh after ensuring the Amulet was lost to time decided to fix the problem of Nirn's Stability even though increased influence of Daedra would not be solved so easily. Akatosh used his governance over Time with the aid of the Daedric Prince Meridia to allow Lorkhan's Heart to reform somewhere on Nirn. Neither Akatosh or Meridia would know where the Heart would reform as both agreed that knowledge was to great a temptation.

Unfortunately this project proved to be a distraction that had disastrous effects on the fate of Nirn.

The Last Dragonborn destined to defeat Alduin and thus hold off the end of Nirn, grew deathly ill after being crippled in the wild with arrows destroying both kneecaps. He died quietly in obscurity.

As Akatosh had given the last Dragon Soul he had to create the last Dragonborn there was no easy replacement. He attempted to catch the last Dragon Soul before it was lost to Aetherius and was only partially successful. A tattered bundle of energy that lacked the necessary qualities to breathe life into a body.

Meridia also suffered a blow when her distraction left one of her temples open to attack, the temple holding several of her beacons and her artifact the Dawnbreaker had fallen under the control of the Necromancer Malkoran who was experimenting on said items. His goal was to drain Meridia's energies to himself or failing that divert the flow of energy gathered by her relics at the least.

Akatosh in a rare moment of desperation offered a solution to Meridia, as the Aedra were tied to Nirn and unable to reach beyond it, he suggested the Daedric Princes provide a suitable champion, it would need to be someone who could incorporate the soul of a dragon and could play the needed role of Dragonborn, in return he would ensure that her temple was found by the champion at the 'right time'.

Meridia quickly agreed. Akatosh left Meridia to sell the idea to the daedra as he scoured Nirn for other damages to it's fate and preparing everything it could to prevent the death of the next Dragonborn.

Unfortunately as is the way of things, Meridia's offer to gain a favor from Akatosh and influence the Last Dragonborn proved to be a far more difficult task than repairing the fabric of space-time.

In the formless between in the Realms of Oblivion a rare gathering of all the major Daedric Princes was proving to be a great deal of fun to Sheogorath, the chaos and bickering went quiet well with his mozzarella.

 **"Enough! I will choose the Champion! I am the Prince of Revolution, Ambition and Change, my Champion would do what is needed for Victory!"** Mehrunes Dagon bellowed, slamming his lower fists on a long slab of obsidian the Princes used as a table for such meetings.

 **"Ha! Like Akatosh would pick your champion, he kicked your ass last time, my champion would hunt down every last dragon before a year has passed, Alduin wouldn't stand a chance!"** Hircine mocked, while sharpening his hunting spear in mock nonchalance.

While none of the Daedra normally needed to take mortal form, the meeting place was bound by some order in ages past and one of those limitations was a distinct form. Even Hermaeus Mora was not immune to such rules. Although, a mass of tentacles spotted with eyes surrounding a large central eye, with four spindly limbs capped with over-sized crustacean pincers was pushing the limits of a 'distinct' form.

 **"Must you use my home for such arguments?"** whinged Jyggalag, whose crystal form was currently done up in a comically exaggerated maids outfit.

 **"SHUT UP JYGGALAG!"** , chorused the Daedric Princes in a rare show of unity. Despite being freed of his curse as the original Sheogorath, he had little power in the Realms of Oblivion and was only a Daedric Prince in name. Thus his regular humiliation as the other Daedric Princes regularly invaded his domain as a neutral meeting ground.

As the discussion returned to bickering Meridia held her head in her hands, it was times like these she her straightforward nature worked against her, _**'I should have proposed this to them separately and picked the best champion of the lot to send to Akatosh. Damn Lorkhan every time I get involved with him it causes me problems, even when he's dead!'**_

Time has far less meaning in the realms of Oblivion than it would in Mundus but, even there nothing appears to make time come to a crawl than business meetings. Even when that business is concerning Deities and Demons determining the fate of the world. As the meeting carried on Sheogorath grew bored as he often does and offered an alternative.

 **"Why don't we just send them all?"** , Sheogorath's simple question left the conference in silence.

After several moments during which Sheogorath ate yet more congealed dairy product, Nocturnals sultry voice broke the silence, "Perhaps you could clarify, what you mean? If we are to send a champion to be the dragonborn wouldn't that limit us to just one champion?"

"Well Akatosh only has a partial Dragon Soul left yeah?", At Meridia's nod he grinned and continued, "Well even though we can't make soul or copy an entire soul doesn't mean we can't copy part of one. We do the same thing for our artifacts, anyway. So with Meridia providing the energy needed, Akatosh providing us a partial Dragon Soul to copy and Azure can make sure we bind the partial souls to our chosen champions."

"But the Last Dragonborn has to defeat Alduin and he's going to need all the power he can get to pull that off." Azura objected.

"But Dragon Souls can absorb their fallen enemies yes? A Competition then! A Grand Hunt where all the Champions must fight to the last! Then Akatosh can't complain as whichever Champion is capable of defeating all his fellows will easily stand against Alduin.", Hircine barked in excitement his enthusiasm for the idea growing rapidly. Several of the others were nodding as the idea gained ground. Each Daedric Prince convinced that their Champion would be the best choice and would best the others.

"If we are to do this we must have rules. I suggest we rule that we can only aid our champion and not directly hinder the others, If our champion falls we may throw our support behind another champion should they prove worthy. Furthermore we cannot contact our champions directly unless they manage to reach one of our shrines or relics. It would not due for some of us to warn their champions with constant information." Peryite growled glaring at Hermaeus Mora and Mephala.

"And no dreams either!" Added Malacath, earning a glare of his own from Vaermina.

"Agreed.", Grumbled out the remaining members. Mephala continued sporting her signature smirk as if the limitations meant nothing to her.

Meridia sighed and stood, "I will speak to Akatosh and gather my champion, I suggest you do the same, when the time comes we will implant the Dragon Souls and hand them over to Akatosh and Kynareth to enter Nirn.

The meeting broke up and each Prince couldn't help but wonder what kind of Champion the others would choose.


	2. Chapter 1: A Bad Day

**Hard Drive Hero**

Eli Wallace was having a truly bad day. The night before Eli had finally finished the last puzzle in the game he had been waiting nearly 6 years to play. Prometheus had finally come out and was receiving incredible buzz but the biggest talking point of the game was the 'unbeatable' puzzle.

The Dakara Weapons Puzzle was incredibly complex and rumor had it that even professionals in the astrophysics field were stumped by it. The puzzle was made more complex due to the fact that is was mostly written in the 'Prometheian' language which had been made for the game. At one point in his life Eli Wallace would have sat down for a month and popped out a solution. However ever since his mother's disappearance he had been a changed person. Before he believed he couldn't handle responsibility and would often drop out when things became overwhelming, now he didn't have that luxury. Since there was no proof of death, there was no life insurance when his mother disappeared. Fortunately his mother's struggle with HIV had led for her to plan ahead. He had access to their savings, which wasn't much considering medical bills, and he was on the title to the car as well as the deed to the house he had grown up in.

With real life no longer waiting around for him he had to play catch up. He put the house up on the market, and looking for an apartment. After getting a half-decent job as an electrician and IT support guru at a nearby manufacturing company, he was able to move out of his car. Between pouring money into the search for his mother and staying alive he had very little in the way of disposable income. While he managed to save up enough for the occasional game and still enjoyed a healthy share of geek culture he couldn't justify the relatively expensive subscription fee to Prometheus for several years.

The previous 4 months had been good to Eli, he had gotten a promotion at work that gave him more free time and a raise. The house had finally sold as well, and though he did put some of that aside to continue the search for his mother, he did indulge in buying a new laptop to enjoy his gaming hobby. The last 4 months he could finally afford to play Prometheus. Despite the 'unbeatable' puzzle the game held a great deal of popularity for it's variety and dynamic open-world. Eli dived in, learning the lore, the technology, the language and eventually he reached Dakara. Now by the time Eli had reached Dakara he could read 'Prometheian' as well as English, or Spanish, German, Chinese and, Korean for that matter. His job had led him to realize his talent as a Polyglot, which he spent a great deal perfecting. The puzzle had been difficult but Eli struggled to imagine it was so difficult that no one had ever beaten it, he assumed that anyone who had beaten had simply kept it quiet. Of course that was up until the point he actually completed the puzzle. At which point the game crashed. Eli spent the next few minutes in shock. Eventually his brain caught up with what had happened and Eli was so disgusted that he turned off the laptop and went to bed.

The next morning as Eli was packing his supplies up for work he heard a knock on his door. Gathering up his things he opened his door to see two men in their 40's or 50's. One man was in full formal Air Force uniform, with short grey hair and a strong jaw, he broadcasted an attitude that demanded respect and authority, despite the slight twinkle of mischief in his eyes. The other man was shorter and had shoulder length grey hair with brown streaks, dressed in the same ugly brown jacket every snobbish professor Eli had ever know wore. The man reminded Eli strongly of a ferret that knew how bad it smelled. His eyes were shifty and accusing, his nose held just high enough to show superiority and disdain without being obviously rude, this was the kind of man that caused Eli to drop out of MIT, the kind that would take every scrap of credit as their own and push every fault and failing onto others. Eli took an immediate dislike to the man who introduced himself as Dr. Nicholas Rush, though he felt far more comfortable around the man who was, Lt. General Jack O'Neil. The two men began asking questions about the puzzle in Prometheus and O'Neil glared at Rush when Eli complained about the lack of anything after the puzzle with just a crash.

After they began to ramble on about some 'Star Gate' Eli had enough and began making his way to leave for work, convinced this was some sort of scam. Until he was surrounded by a bright flash of light. Then he found himself surrounded by men in military fatigues with guns and O'Neil and Rush were standing there smirking at him. His geeky side was going nuts but his paranoid side was raving, _'I'VE JUST BEEN KIDNAPPED!'_

Before he had much time to process this he saw the men raise there guns at him as O'Neil look alarmed and was reaching for his sidearm, Rush just paled and looked torn between smug and horrified.

" **You'll do just fine! Off we go Champion!"**

Eli felt something grab his shoulder before everything went black. This was a really bad day and Eli hadn't even gotten breakfast yet!

 **Elsewhere**

As Eli travelled unconscious in the veil between realities his abductor was beginning to cackle.

" **Now now now, we can't send you off to Nirn as you are, what to give you..."**

The being coalesced into a tan man with shock white hair and a truly atrocious outfit, the purple and yellow shades of the bright Tabard and Pants was bad enough but add the embroidered patterns that roil and twist giving the impression of endless movement mad the ensemble truly eye-watering. As he pondered over the mortal he spied the messenger bag hung over Eli's shoulder.

" **Ah! That will do nicely, I Sheogorath grant my Champion the blessing as such that he shall gain the powers and abilities of the items and concepts contained within this bag!"**

Sheogorath managed to maintain a straight face for a matter of nanoseconds after making his proclamation, before descending into giggles as the messenger bag, full of Electrical tools, cables, and of course Eli's Laptop began to melt into Eli and fuse with him on a conceptual level. His task done Sheogorath sent his Champion off to Meridia before deciding to look for a realm made entirely of cheese before returning home to Nirn and Oblivion.


End file.
